Guiding students toward a career in the STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and math — has long been a goal of the SAMSAT organization at Port San Antonio. While they were already working with school districts close by Port San Antonio and all over the city, they applied in 2019 for an Impact San Antonio grant to expand the program with three school districts near Port San Antonio: Edgewood, South San Antonio and Harlandale.
They received a Support Grant, which allowed them to start the program.
“The proposal was to serve eighth-graders in three middle schools, one in each school district,” said Dr. Cliff Zintgraff, Chief Learning Officer for SAMSAT. “We organized a consortium. The idea was to encourage students to select the high school STEM (diploma) endorsement. If you look at economic impact reports, the average STEM wage is $30,000 greater than the average overall wage in general.”
That was the plan, but in March 2020 SAMSAT staff got a phone call informing them there was a possible case of Covid exposure. They had to close, and it had a major impact on their revenue. The San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology, which is what SAMSAT stands for; their Geekbus, which was traveling to schools to deliver hands-on experiences with technology; and the 10 weeks of summer camps they had planned for that year were suspended indefinitely. “Revenue from the bus and tours, and students served, went straight to zero,” Zintgraff said.
But the need for social distancing didn’t stop the SAMSAT staff from pursuing their mission. “About three weeks later, we set up several online classes,” Zintgraff said. “And then we turned our free classes into the SAMSAT Academy, awarding digital badges across many topics.” Digital badges, similar to Scouting badges, show that a student has mastered a particular skill.
“The museum is closed for in-person tours, and the Geekbus has not run since the beginning of the pandemic,” he said. “We took the curriculum we built for them, and that was the basis for the online classes we started delivering on April 1.
“We served 246 students in Edgewood ISD. In South San, we served 176 students. We didn’t get the Harlandale students served before the onset of the pandemic. That delayed the delivery of services until December 2020.”
Zintgraff said he’s excited about what the agency has been able to do during the pandemic.
“I am pumped about our impact,” he said. “For example, in Edgewood, 26 more students than the year before committed to the STEM endorsement.
“You (Impact SA) allowed us to deliver the STEM endorsement program (in the three school districts). Your organization made it possible.”
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